Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-12-25

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effect Of this mCOngruity was startling. II
Is related that au inebriated miner, imped-
ed by mud aud drink before its door, was
found gazing at its remarkable facade with
an expression OF the deepest dependency.
Il hev lived q free life, pardner,' he eX-
planned thickly to the Samaritan who sue
COrrd him, and every time since I've
been on this six weeks iambOrce might
have kalkilated il would come to this.
Snakes I've seen afOre now, and rats I'm
not unfamiliar with, but when it comes to
the ~tarn OF 4 ship riSIn up out OF the
street. ! reckon It's time to pass in my
checks" Il is q ship yOu blasted old
sOaker. " said the Samaritan curly.
II WAS indeed a ship. 4 ship run ashore
aud abandoned on toe beach years before
by her gold seeking crew, with the debris
OF her scattered stores aud cargo, Overtaken
By the wild growth Otthc strange city and
the reclamation Of the muddy tlat, wherein
she Law hopele@sly imbedded; her retreat
cut OF by wharyeS and pIJayS aud back
water, lostled at first by sheds, anil then
impacted i'm q block OF solid warehouse and
dwellings, her rudder, port and counter
boarded ia, and gaZ,ug hopeleSSly through
her cabin windows upon the busy street
before her. But still e ship despite her
transformation. The taintest line OF eon-
tour We left visible spoke at the buOyaucy
OF another element; the haluStrade Ot her
root was Enthusiastically q tattraIl. The
rain slipped from her swelling spleS with a
certain lingering touch OF the sea; the soil
around her WAS still treacherOus with it's
suggestions, aud even the wind whistled
nauticllly over her chimney. It, IN the
fury OF some Southwesterly gale, she had
one night slipped her strange mOOrings and
Left q shining track through the lower
town 20 the distant sea, no one would have
been surprised.
Least OF all, perhaps, her present owner
and pOssesSOr, Mr.. Abuer Mott. For, by
the irony of circumstances, Mr.. Mott was y
for western farmer, who hal never seen n
ship before, nor a | rgcr stream OF water
than y tributary Of the Missouri river. In
a spirit, half Of fascination, halt OF specu-
lation, he had bought her at the time Of
her abandonment, and had since mOrtgaGed
his ranch at Petaluma, with his live stock,
to detray the expense OF filling in the land
where she stood and the improvements OF
the vicinity. Tie had transferred his house
hold goods and his only daughter to her
cabin. and had divided the space between
decks and her hold into lodging rooms
and lofts for the storage Of gOCdL. 1t could
hardly he said that the investment had
been profitable. Ills tenants vaguely re.
cOgnized that his occupancy was a senti-
mental rather than q commercial Specu-
lation, and often generously lent them
selves to the illusion by not paying their
rent Others treated their own tenancy ~
a loke-a quaint recreation born OF the
Childhke familiarity OF frontier intercourse.
4 few had left, CareleSSly abandoning their
unstable goods to their landlord with
great cheertulneSS and a sense of favor.
Occasionally Mr.. Abncr Mott, in a prac-
teal relapse, ragged against the dercllCts,
and talked Of diSpOsseSSing them, or even
~dismanthng his tenement, hut he was
easily plaCatCd by "a compliment to fhe
'dear old ship or an Effort made by some
tenant to idealihe his apartment. 4 pho
tOgrapher who had ingeniously utilized the
forecastle for a gallery larceSsible from the
BOWS in the next street.. paid no further
tribute than q portrait OF the pretty face Of
ROSey Mott. The suprrstitiOus reverence
in which Abncr Mott held his mOnstrous
fa-Cy was naturally enhanced by his
purely hucol.c evaporation of its real
functions and its native element. This
yer keel has sailed, and sailed, and sailed, -
he would explain with SOme InCOngruity
Of illustration, in q bee line, maxim
tracks Tor days runuin'. / reckon more
storu,s and bliizlrds haz tackled her than
YOU ken shake q stick at. She's Stampedsd
nN-N - --s4I
pirates and frsebOOteys IN and outer the
Spanish ranin and across lots from Mar
Celleys where she was rared. And yer she
sits peaceful like inst az II she'd never
been outer a pertater patch, and hadn't
plOwed he sea with fo'SaiiS and studdiu'
sails and them things cIvortln' round her
mISts.
Abner Motifs enthusiasm WAS shared by
his daughter, but with more imagination,
aud an intelligence stimulated 10y thcscant
literature OF her fathers emigrant wagon
and the few books found on the cabin
shelves. Bat To her the strange shell she
inhabited suggested more OF the great
world than the rude, chaotic civilization
she saw from the cabin windows or met in
the persons OF her fathers dodgers. Shut
up for days in this quaint tenement, she
had seen it change from the enchanted
playground Of her childish fancy to the
theatre of her active maidenhOCd, hut
without losing her ideal romance in it.
She had translated It's history in her own
way, read its quaint nautical hierOGlyphicS
after her own fashion, and possessed her
self of its secrets. She had in fancy made
voyages in it to foreign lands, had heard
the accents OF a softer tongue on its decks,
and on summer nights, from the roof of
the quarter deck, had seen mellower con-
stellations cake the place of the hard
metallic glitter Of the Californian skies.
Sometimes, in her isolation, the long,
cylindrical yault she inhabited seemed,
like some vast sea shell, TO become musical
with the murmurings of the distant sea.
So completely had it taken the place of the
usual instincts of feminine youth that she
had forgotten she was pretty, or that her
dresses were old in fashion and scant in
quantity. After the first surprise of adj
miratiOn her fathers dodgers ceased to fol-